Important cultural property

Yakushi-ji's South Gate, built in 1512, began as the West Precinct gate, moved onto the stones of the lost Great South Gate, fronting the Hakuho precinct.

South of Yakushi-ji stands the Wakamiya-sha, a single-bay Kasuga-style shrine in cypress bark and the precinct's oldest building, from the late Kamakura period.

In the hills of eastern Nara, the small main hall of Yasaka Shrine wears a rare roof of thick boards laid in overlapping tiers, a late-Muromachi nagare-zukuri.

An Important Cultural Property on Mount Yoshino, Yoshimizu Shrine Shoin shows an early form of shoin-zukuri and is tied to Yoshitsune and Emperor Go-Daigo.

The stone treasure pagoda of Raigoji in Nara City, a hoto made in 1310 in the late Kamakura period, was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1954.

The Ritsugakuin Main Hall, built in 1627 outside Horyuji's Great East Gate, enshrines Prince Shotoku in a gable-fronted hall that closely follows the Shoryoin.

A 17-metre pagoda roofed in cypress bark at Ryosenji in Nara, an Important Cultural Property since 1899, dated 1356 by the Agency and about 1283 by the temple.

A mid-Muromachi bell tower at Ryosenji in Nara, an Important Cultural Property since 1943, one bay square with a flared skirt, holding a bell cast in 1644.

The main hall of Renchoji in central Nara, a Nichiren hall of 1653 open at the front, is brightly painted with maidens, dragons and phoenixes and little altered.

The main hall of Wanishimo Shrine in Tenri, Nara, a gabled hall of the Keicho era (1596 to 1615) with a porch and cypress-bark roof, was designated in 1938.

An Important Cultural Property preserved at Kōfuku-ji in Nara, this Kamakura-period silk hanging scroll depicts two of the Four Heavenly Kings — the surviving half of an originally complete set of four. Painted by artists associated with the Nanto Edokoro workshop during the temple's restoration after the burning of Nara in 1180, it consciously revives Nara-period iconography while showing the emerging realism of the new Kamakura style. Normally not on view, it is shown only during special exhibitions.

Held by Hōryū-ji in Nara, the Important Cultural Property Star Mandala on Silk is a rare Heian-period four-court circular mandala. With Shaka Kinrin at its center surrounded by the Big Dipper, Nine Luminaries, twelve zodiac signs and twenty-eight lunar mansions, it is a cosmic map where Indian, Chinese and even Greek-Babylonian astronomical traditions meet on a single piece of silk.

An Important Cultural Property of Japan, this set of five wooden statues — a standing Thousand-Armed Kannon flanked by four Heavenly Kings, all enshrined in their original Kasuga-style shrine — has been preserved in the Senjudō hall of Tōdai-ji's Kaidan-in compound in Nara. Created around 1269 in conjunction with the founding of the hall by the Vinaya master Enshō, the statues are widely recognised as a leading example of the Zen-pa school of Kamakura-period sculptors. Treated as hidden Buddhas from the Muromachi period onwards, they retain their original gilding, cut-gold patterns, and bronze accessories in remarkable condition.

Preserved at Shōryaku-ji in the wooded hills of Nara, the Ekottarika-āgama Volume 30, known as the Zenkō Vermilion Seal Sutra, is an Important Cultural Property dating to around 759 CE. One of about thirty surviving scrolls from a canon-copying project sponsored by the nun Zenkō of Hokke-ji, it preserves both eighth-century calligraphy at its finest and detailed colophons that document Nara-period sutra production. This article also introduces Shōryaku-ji's millennium of history, its famed maple-lined valley, and its heritage as the birthplace of refined sake brewing in Japan.

Discover the Nihon Kanreiroku-shō, a precious 1147 manuscript preserved at the Sakamoto Ryūmon Bunko in Yoshino, Nara. This Important Cultural Property is the only surviving copy of an early Heian Buddhist tale collection compiled by the Gangō-ji monk Gishō, offering rare glimpses into Japan's vanished setsuwa literature.

Discover the Haniwa Ushi, a nationally Important Cultural Property displayed at Karako-Kagi Archaeological Museum in Tawaramoto, Nara. Excavated in 1897 from Hagoda Tomb No. 1, this rare 6th-century cow-shaped haniwa is one of fewer than ten such examples ever found in Japan.

A large gassho-style farmhouse in Gokayama, Nanto, Toyama, an Important Cultural Property since 1958, the most developed form of the style in the Sho River basin.

The main hall of the Maedate Shadan of Oyama Shrine at Iwakuraji, Tateyama, Toyama, is a large five-bay nagare-style shrine of the late Muromachi period.

The main hall of Keta Shrine at Fushiki, Takaoka, Toyama, is a three-bay nagare-style shrine of the mid-16th century that keeps the grand character of its age.

The Saeki Family Residence in Takaoka, Toyama, is a farmhouse bought from a Kaga domain headman and re-erected here in 1768. Papers date it; Toyama's oldest minka.